Andy Coulson to face perjury charges

Andy Coulson is accused of lying while giving evidence at the trial of Tommy
Sheridan and will face perjury charges

Andy Coulson is to face a string of perjury charges in a Scottish courtPhoto: Reuters

By Auslan Cramb

1:40PM BST 06 Aug 2014

Andy Coulson, David Cameron’s former director of communications, is to face a string of perjury charges in a Scottish court.

The 46-year-old is alleged to have lied while giving evidence at the perjury trial of Tommy Sheridan, the former leader of the Scottish Socialist Party, in December 2010.

Coulson, from Preston, Kent, did not appear at a preliminary hearing at the High Court in Glasgow, and no plea was entered.

He is accused of knowing there was a culture of phone hacking at the News of the World while he was the editor and acting editor.

Court papers allege he was aware of instances of phone hacking between 2002 and 2006, involving Milly Dowler, the 13-year-old schoolgirl who was abducted and murdered, Kimberley Quinn, mistress of the Labour politician David Blunkett, and the actor Daniel Craig.

He is also charged with knowing payments of around £2,750 were made to corrupt police officers by a journalist between December 1, 2002 and January 26, 2007.

The indictment claims that while giving evidence at the trial, Coulson falsely claimed he did not know Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator, and had not exchanged emails with him.

It adds that he knew that Mr Mulcaire, and the News of the World journalist Clive Goodman, "engaged together" in phone hacking.

The charges also allege that he knew Mr Goodman paid Mr Mulcaire a total of £4,600, but claimed in evidence he was unaware of payments.

Coulson also allegedly said in evidence at Mr Sheridan’s trial that he only knew of one "very unfortunate case" of hacking by Mr Goodman, when in fact he knew of a culture of hacking.

The papers allege he claimed to have no knowledge of corrupt police officers being paid, but between December 2002 and January 2007 he knew that Mr Goodman had made three payments totalling around pounds2,750.

A further preliminary hearing was set for October and the court was told that a trial would not take place before January.

Mr Sheridan sued the Sunday tabloid after it claimed he was an adulterer who visited a swingers’ club.

He initially won damages of £200,000, but was later accused of lying on oath during his civil action and jailed for three years after being found guilty of perjury. He served just over one year in prison before being released.